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RichardKennaway comments on Why I Am Not a Rationalist, or, why several of my friends warned me that this is a cult - Less Wrong Discussion

12 Post author: Algernoq 13 July 2014 05:54PM

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Comment author: RichardKennaway 14 July 2014 01:08:16PM 3 points [-]

That is not a problem with the word but the thing. It does not matter what opposition to bad skepticism is called. If it exists as a definite idea, it will acquire a name, and whatever name it is called by will be used in that way.

"New rationalism" is even worse: the name suggests not that there is such a thing as bad reasoning, but that reasoning is bad.

Perhaps a better idea would be to not call it anything, nor make of it a thing. Instead, someone dissatisfied with how it is being done on LW might more fruitfully devote their energies to demonstrating how to do it better.